e-6904 (Health)

Petition to the Government of Canada

• Palliative care is an approach that aims to relieve suffering and improve the quality of life for those living with a serious illness and their loved ones;
• In Canada, only 58% of people who might have benefited from palliative care ended up accessing these services, approximately half of whom are only identified as needing these services 22 days or less before their death (CIHI, 2023);
• 61% of people who receive palliative care still only receive it in hospital and patients admitted to hospital with palliative conditions had stays longer than 2 weeks on average (CIHI, 2023);
• Delivering palliative care earlier typically reduces hospital admissions, long hospital stays, re-admissions, visits to intensive care, and inappropriate diagnoses and interventions—all of which are costly to the healthcare system and negatively impact a person’s quality of life (WHO, 2020);
• There remain no agreed-upon common dataset or mandatory national standards to track services requested and delivered in Canada; and
• Health Canada’s own public opinion research also shows that primary care providers report a lack of knowledge, confidence, tools, and practical support to implement a palliative approach to care.